


A work in progress (it worked, I guess)

by further_the_dreaming



Series: Character reinterpretations (and related imaginings) [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: BAMF Yamanaka Ino, Character Analysis, Character Study, F/M, Gen, The Yamanaka flower shop, Yamanaka Ino-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 10:03:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18496702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/further_the_dreaming/pseuds/further_the_dreaming
Summary: For a story about ninja battles unearthing conspiracies, you would expect that a character capable of mental projection would be somewhat important to the plot. You would be wrong.Alternatively titled: an analysis of Yamanaka Ino, and the seven traits that defined her.





	A work in progress (it worked, I guess)

  1. **Mind Projections; Her Distinguishing Ability**



 

Despite being part of the Rookie Nine (and thus in the protagonist’s somewhat inner-circle of allies), this girl capable of mind-projections has never been vital to the plot woven with conspiracies within conspiracies. The plot could have at least mentioned why her talent’s were never relevant – perhaps all Konoha ninja are taught special mental compartmentalisation techniques to keep the Yamanaka technique out? But that would drastically decrease the Clan’s value to the Konoha, and they wouldn’t be a major Clan if they couldn’t weed out spies or double agents, if such mental protections were standard. Also, Sakura’s ability to force out Ino in the Chuunin Preliminaries wouldn’t be jaw-droppingly shocking either.

 

Instead, canon provides that Ino can indeed forcibly insert her mind into others, and she’s probably been able to perform this or a weaker version of it for some time _before_ the Chuunin Exams as it is a skill one works at. She is also in a position where it is reasonable for her to stumble across information (her family works in T&I) or seek out information (she is part of the Rookie Nine and is a rival / old childhood friend to the protagonist’s professed love interest). So by all means, she’s well placed to be useful to the plot.

 

And then she uses this ability for what? Open combat! When her body is obviously defenceless in a live situation! This does show why ability is not the be all and end all, and why the Shika-Ino part of the Team 10 combo is so vital in their teamwork.

 

But it would not be out of bounds for a shonen series, to write a tense situation that doesn’t directly involve A vs B. The obvious answer is an infiltration mission to gather information from the opposing side, and Ino is there in some poor sod’s body, awkwardly trying out their mannerisms around others, and later rifling through papers in an office somewhere.

 

The less obvious answer is to have an infiltration mission, but for _sabotage_ purposes. For I imagine that many other ninja villages go by the “attack first, question later” rule if one of their own betrays the village. Can you imagine Ino lining up the shot and projecting herself into, say, a Cloud ninja’s body. Walking to their jail and releasing all the ninja prisoners and in the confusion, some captured Konoha agents are freed as well. Or can you imagine her in that body, and shouting some of anti-propaganda or misinformation to the civilian streets about corruption in their leadership and attempting to ‘flee’ before she/he will be ‘silenced by their oppressors’. Can you imagine her rolling her shoulders in that other body before flying into an attack on some hapless pre-genin or civilian target, taking them out while wearing another’s face, then leaving that body while it’s unconscious to be captured by their own people?

 

And imagine Shikamaru, performing his shadow technique _on_ Ino’s unconscious body, making her move as though she is still awake and aware – no changes here, siree, we’re all innocent tourists or simple genin trying to do a completely irrelevant mission, and we have nothing to do with your own infighting. And Chouji is attempting to keep watch and look out for them both (and who would suspect a so-called _civilian_ -born overweight genin who will likely wash-out once he _actually_ sees action?)

 

Imagine Team 10 missions, with abilities like that.

 

  1. **Her Fighting Ability (or weakness in)**



 

Now, this is not necessarily a character flaw (no matter how fun it can be to have BAMF characters appearing left and right).

 

Generally, if our protagonist plans to be the strongest combatant, many of the background characters must be weaker than he is, to establish a baseline in abilities. Ino could very well be part of that baseline.

 

After all, it is never suggested that she is _unworthy_ to be a kunoichi (like how Hinata was, with her perceived/actual weakness being an essential part of her character arc). Ino’s skills seem fairly solid. She can throw punches and kicks, her kunai land where she aims them, and she shifts between leading and backing up her genin team with no obvious struggle in itself.

 

Perhaps Ino is average, and most of the rest of the cast develop to become exceptional.

 

Or maybe it is because Ino seems to be the only one in the Rookie Nine (and possibly Rookie Twelve, because I can’t remember if Tenten helping out at a weapons shop is canon or fanon) who actually spends significant time, helping out her parent’s business.

 

Seriously, we see her in canon minding the flower shop for seemingly hours on end, and also generally helping to prepare flower arrangements (e.g. that is what she does in the interim period before the final round of the Chuunin Exams, when Sakura is buying flowers for Lee). Ino literally has less time to train. It is no wonder why her combat skills aren’t growing as fast as the others.

 

The question we need an answer for, is this: Why would her father, the Head of the Clan, allow her to mind the flower shop for so long?

 

Because you can create some more dimensions to Ino’s character by answering this.

 

  * If Ino does this because she genuinely enjoys it, then could it be that she just doesn’t want to be the very best, like no one ever was? Does Ino want to live a comfortable life, like Shikamaru once did- Chuunin at most, with simple jobs that meshes well with civilian-life?  

  * Is this flower shop, actually, very important – so much so that Inoichi doesn’t hire, literally anyone else, to mind it? Is this store actually a front for information drop offs, or a crucial gathering point in some way? Is it a lynchpin for making the Yamanaka Clan appear approachable to the public so civilians are never too scared of them? Is it an open secret, if that is the case, operating a bit like a police station (since the Uchiha Clan are gone, but their jobs didn’t) where people can get reference checks on their characters with a quick Mind-swap jutsu to verify their authenticity, or where people are comfortable to go in there for help or assistance or relating some information of a potential crime etc?



 

  * Is “minding the shop” actually training? Is Ino learning how to navigate politics and gossip and civilian life (that she can use for later infiltration missions, because many high level ninja are too eccentric to believably pull off a “nondescript civilian”)? Is she actually refining her abilities to send coded messages through the flower arrangements, or learning how to manage her Clan’s financial activities behind an innocent veneer?



 

  * Is “minding the shop” actually code for something else? Maybe there is only a clone of Ino at the shop, for plausible deniability, and she is off doing something else, anything else. She could be training, she could be learning, she could even be helping low level investigations at T&I, because I imagine that someone has to verify that informants believe what they say, even for C and B rank missions. For non-essential C rank missions, like ‘bandits having been attacking this distant rural town’, a mind-read jutsu can be performed simply to have a better image of the last encounter with said bandits, and you can get more comprehensive information if you look through memories (or at least the recipient’s headspace, like what happened with Sakura during the Chuunin Exams).



 

  * Or maybe the flower shop is unrelated to the Yamanaka Clan, and Ino just likes helping out. It gives better wages than D-rank missions (since you split that four-ways), and she needs the money for better ninja equipment. Who knows?



 

  1. **Her Demeanour (public and private)**



As far as we know, there isn’t really a difference between these personas, which is a little surprising for a ninja who was probably destined for a life in infiltration or investigating whether someone is lying.

 

But then, it may well be that Ino knows that people often surround those who are genuine and confident in themselves. After all, most ninja learn how to detect basic acts, and from her family’s experience with high level shinobi who are suspicious of any one wearing a mask, no matter how mild, Ino knows that it is better that she is genuine whether she is.

 

You never know who is watching, after all, and if there is no mask, then they can never see the mask slip.

 

Perhaps there some credit to the author can be attributed, as I don’t remember Ino revealing secrets, so the implication is that she can keep them. There is a skill of initiating and subtly directing conversations so that you never reveal anything serious, and perhaps Ino has that, or is learning how to have that.

 

It’s also interesting how Ino’s self-confidence never verges into arrogance (*cough* Neji *cough*), nor seems malicious. She seems to know herself and be comfortable with it in a similar way that Temari is depicted, although Ino is arguably louder (although that might just be an effect of the contrast between her and her lazier or amicable teammates).

 

Anyway, most people get information by talking, so it is best to know how to keep the conversation going!

 

  1. **Her Aesthetics**



 

Ino takes care in her appearance, but that would make sense when you focus on the public persona aspect of it. Because you can add another dimension on her character by making her clothes into a thought-out choice.

 

  * Perhaps she appreciates hygiene and likes the boost to her self-confidence when she looks in the mirror and that vitalises her to push through her long, draining training. Seriously, her training outfit is essentially a uniform that she wears nearly all day, every day, so it may as well be moderately appealing. Why go out of your way to wear something drab when you are not on a mission? After all, this is pretty much the last chance she’ll get to wear fashionable clothes before she starts standing out from the crowd for the wrong reasons. After all, only the eccentric ninja, strong enough to stay alive even after earning a reputation, make changes to the Konoha uniform. Yeah, once she is promoted to Chuunin, Ino will be in the Konoha uniform for, like, 90% of the rest of her life, assuming she lives to her grandmother’s age. Urgh.



 

  * Or, perhaps she tried wearing the skirt at first, but later decides she will phase it out. She doesn’t want to do an abrupt change because it is important that she maintains her image as that charming young girl who works at the flower shop (who happens to be training as a ninja – but hey, that’s the cool thing for kids in Konoha), rather than a budding cold-blooded assassin, for the sake of the civilians who use her family’s flower shop, and whose gossip can be important for information networking. Maybe many other civilian girls her age wear skirts and dresses, and she doesn’t want to emphasise too much of her genin nature – that is, after all, why she doesn’t wear her headband in the standard place. So perhaps some of her outfits is a deliberate choice, and she will phase out the skirts for combat leggings or pants once people get more used to the fact that she is wearing a combat training outfit at all.



 

And look, her outfit is not entirely impractical – it could be so much worse – it doesn’t have unnecessary holes in it, and at least it is a plain dark purple, rather than being bright or patterned. (But the utter waste of bandages- why? They won’t even be sterile anymore, and thus medically useless, unless there is some common low-chakra cleaning jutsu that everyone happens to know and never mentions. I’ll run with that, because aside from Lee, who created/uses a fighting technique involving his arm bandages, there sure are a lot of ninja using this bandage aesthetic. Although, plot twist- Ino’s actually wearing a striped undershirt and pants. Who knew?)

 

  1. **Her Formative Crush on Sasuke-kun**



 

A pre-pubescent unrequitedly crushing on an attractive person isn’t a character cop-out in itself. But it would be nice to know what exactly makes Sasuke so attractive to her. She must know, after all, that they will never marry, not if she is to become the Head of the Yamanaka Clan and Sasuke will become the Head of the Uchiha Clan.

 

Clan names are probably important in a world that tracks bloodlines.

 

And it is not as though Ino would be as blinded by Academy marks or superficial appearances in the same way that civilian-born ninja kids would be. Ino would grow up knowing that people can easily illusion their faces or true intentions, that hiding skills or using stealth can be more important than showing off and probably that seduction-type assassination exists in the ninja world. There is no reason why she wouldn’t, not when she is about to enter this world.

 

So here are possible reasons why we see Ino crushing on Sasuke, such that a large part of her introduction, was literally as Sakura’s rival in love.

 

  * Ino **genuinely loves** Sasuke, maturely and deeply, with some heavily implied angst in how they cannot be together, not without one of them disappointing the expectations of their family etc. But… this is kind of off-set by the fact that Academy kids are younger than twelve (except possibly Naruto, since he failed to graduate multiple times. I can’t tell if he just entered the Academy early, was allowed to sit the graduation exams early, or if he is genuinely older than the rest of Rookie Nine).
  * Ino genuinely has a **crush on Sasuke** **despite herself**. Yes, she knows that Shino is also strong and silent and she has no problems with bugs (because that is one of the last fears that a ninja-born girl could have), but she just likes Sasuke more. It’s silly, and she knows it, but you can’t quite help how you feel… and… now it’s a matter of pride because your best friend tossed you because they decided _they_ were in love with him, and you know what- stuff that! Sorry Sasuke, you shall now be objectified as the prize, because **this has become a competition that Ino is not losing**.
  * Ino thinks that liking Sasuke is “ **safe”, because it will not go anywhere**. Ino likes a lot of people in class, knows that she doesn’t know much about romance-romance, but she does know that she wants to be Yamanaka Head, and she can’t if she changes her last name, and since Sasuke is effectively the last of his Clan, she doubts he would want to change his. No, Ino knows all about how **obsessions begin in a ninja’s formative years** and she is not going to be a kunoichi driven by chasing one person down. She is determined that she is not going to have an obsession at all, and be one of the few shining examples of mentally-adjusted ninja in this village.
  * Ino is **ambivalent towards Sasuke, but** **joins in with the fad of liking him** , because so many other people are crushing on him. Ino doesn’t want to stand out, because she knows that would make her a target of observation that makes it harder for her to do her family jutsu stealthily, and she also likes leading her pack of girls. It is not such a sacrifice to occasionally croon “Sasuke-kun~” or shriek “Sasuke-sama!” if that makes her fit in better.
  * Ino **feels sorry for Sasuke**. She thinks that she is the best option as his wife, because unlike the rest of her classmates crushing on him, she actually knows some more specifics of the Uchiha massacre and how devastating that would be on his psyche and hey- her family understands the mind better than anyone else. Ino is uniquely suited to helping him! She could have a crush as well, maybe or maybe not, but if she did, she could certainly use this to justify it to herself.
  * [[ **Bonus** : Ino tries to convince herself she has a crush on Sasuke out of **guilt**. No one really paid attention to the second child of the Uchiha Clan Head until the massacre, and she wished she did so that he would have a better support network, because no one deserves going through that trauma.]]



 

  1. **The Yamanaka Clan; particularly, her father as the Head of the Clan**



 

The story doesn’t really remark upon her position as a Clan Heir or the associated duties, unless you count the flower shop. But as I mentioned before, with the tracking of Bloodlines and  considering that some of the plots points turn political in nature, Clan dynamics should also be a major part of shinobi life, not just for the Hyuuga. Having ninja clans represents a major aspect of Konoha functionality.

 

Nor is it remarked upon whether Ino has ever received special training or treatment _because_ she is a Clan Heir (Who knows how much her Clan helped her learn about psychology, combat, further Clan techniques beyond mind-projections, Clan politics and leadership, poisons etc?) And it is not as though she doesn’t have a Clan, or that she’s civilian-born, or her relationship with her family is strained. It is known fairly early in canon that Ino is the heir to an affluent and influential ninja Clan, and that Team 10’s formation reflects how close the Ino-Shika-Cho Clans are.

 

By the way, her father is in the upper echelons of Konoha’s Torture and Interrogation Unit, and you would think he has plenty of knowledge of the worst things in the world, that he would want his only child to be able to protect herself (see: Her Fighting Ability).

 

  1. **Team 10**



 

This one is less about Ino, and more about the team generally.

 

I think Asuma is as normal as you can get for a strong jounin. He is a very likeable character, and plays an important role in a certain Shippuden arc. _But_ , I really do believe that as a sensei to Team 10… just… what exactly did he teach them? Because Team 10 is really making its way as the “next generation of Ino-Shika-Cho”; there isn’t much Sarutobi influence aside from having mental stability (which to be fair is very, very important – although I doubt that Naruto-verse society would agree, since nobody seemed to believe in therapy until Naruto came along and prompted his opponents to talk through their worst moments and life problems then challenged their engrained perspectives).

 

I mean, I really believe that Kurenai, as a genjutsu user, would be able to improve their combinations so much more. Seriously, a lot of Shikamaru’s fights are about his opponent tracking where his shadows are, so using an illusion to mask the pattern of shadows should be a great advantage. Ino’s mind transfer technique makes her body very obviously helpless, and genjutsu may help hiding that. Chouji is a known pacifist, and genjutsu can be a way of ending a confrontation before it begins.

 

So while it would be wonderful for Asuma to still interact with Team 10 in some close fashion, it would also be wonderful if, somehow, Kurenai became close to them in such a way that she taught them some important skills in illusions and infiltration (because it makes so much more sense if you think of Kurenai as an infiltration specialist, rather than a combat specialist given her abilities and how she was eventually placed on a tracking/search-and-rescue team).  

 

Still, I can’t quite remember if the story showed moments of Ino and Shikamaru or Ino and Chouji, in the same way that it showed Shikamaru and Chouji casually hanging out. Perhaps, the author wanted to iterate that if Ino was ever alone with a boy, she would want it to be Sasuke, but they are a genin team. What close friends does Ino have to relax around, if not them, in the absence of self-proclaimed love-rival Sakura? All three of them seem content to be the “next generation” of their Clans, which implies that they have also been content to settle with each other, and their actions on missions are not strictly professional (although that may be because they are kids).

 

But you cannot deny that Ino is defined by her position in Team 10.

**Author's Note:**

> These are essentially her main traits during the several hundred episodes of Naruto, while she is a genin, before Shippuden begins. (And then it does... and well, where is she?)


End file.
